Sorry to say that a line conditioner will not stop 60Hz hum. When you have 60 Hz hum most likely it is from improper grounding or AC wiring problems with the ground pin on the equipment wiring.

A good idea is to have everything plugged into one or two 20 amp (or more) circuit breaker that is ONLY feeding your studio. You don't want a feed that is also feeding a motor (as in your HVAC system) or your refrigerator. A good line conditioner will help get rid of RF or other noise on the line (from things like the hi voltage transformer for an oil burning furnace igniter) but will do nothing for hum problems. If you want to take the big plunge you can look into balance power which may help you achieve what you are looking for - excellent power to all your equipment.

You can also look into getting a TOPAZ or similar isotransformer that will isolate your studio from the outside world and provide a Faraday shield to get rid of noise problems.

There is a lot of information on the web about proper grounding techniques and power for studios. These are but a small number of white papers or tech info that I have found.

Rane http://www.rane.com/note110.html has some excellent info on line as does Furman http://www.furmansound.com/pdfdata/whitepaper.pdf and Equitech (http://www.equitech.com/articles/enigma.html).

Furman makes some nice power conditioners. I have several. Also check out Dr Ferds Wall Wart Removers. They have nothing to do with power conditioning but are a big help in freeing up sockets covered by wall warts.

Originally posted by Thomas W. Bethel: Sorry to say that a line conditioner will not stop 60Hz hum. When you have 60 Hz hum most likely it is from improper grounding or AC wiring problems with the ground pin on the equipment wiring.

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Every time I've been on-location for recording or live sound and experienced 60Hz noise in my line, a power conditioner promptly either drastically reduced the noise level or outright removed it. I keep a Monster power conditioner around for just this reason.

For my modest setup, I have a 50 amp line filter/protector going into a DIY transformer rig that balances the AC line feeding my gear. I can also wire it as an isolation transformer only(for higher current draw). Easy to build, but don't attempt it unless you have some electrical skills or someone to assist who does.

Originally posted by Thomas W. Bethel: Sorry to say that a line conditioner will not stop 60Hz hum. When you have 60 Hz hum most likely it is from improper grounding or AC wiring problems with the ground pin on the equipment wiring.

Click to expand...

Every time I've been on-location for recording or live sound and experienced 60Hz noise in my line, a power conditioner promptly either drastically reduced the noise level or outright removed it. I keep a Monster power conditioner around for just this reason.

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If it works for you then use it. BUT just plugging a Monster power conditioner in is NOT going to eliminate or cure 60HZ hum that is caused by grounding problems or improperly connected equipment. There are numerous sites on the net that deal with this question and I can recommend a couple of them if you need them. I have also written a couple of articles on this and would be happy to share them with you.

We do a lot of on location recording work and I carry an isotransformer, a line conditioner and a AC filter box with us to every remote (even though the iso transformer weighs about 40 pounds) It helps us get good recordings without motor noise on the AC lines or the effects of cheap stage dimmers getting to our equipment. We use one large AC distro box for all our AC power and everything is plugged into that one box so that all the grounds are at the same potential. We also use star grounding on all of our equipment to provide the best possible noise figures.

In our mastering studio we use similar iso transformers and balanced power plus AC line filters (commercial grade) and our computers are running on commercial power conditioners and UPS power supplies.

SI, besides a dedicated circuit for studio power, most important is that the ground on that circuit is dedicated also, not tied to main panel ground. Lots of noise can creep across a shared ground source!